Our sacred duty as storykeepers is to hear, hold, and pass on even the most difficult of stories. The more difficult the story, the more sacred is the duty. Today, I’ll talk about how stories, especially those of pain and trauma, are often weaponized against us, to manipulate us in campaigns and elections. But if we return to our sacred duty to hold and pass along the most difficult of stories, we will honor the story and be less vulnerable to manipulation. It is also important to allow ourselves to be changed by these stories, and to then transmute the pain of those stories into action.

I will go into specific topics where it is important to bear witness and hold the most painful and traumatic stories. And I will share my own approach to holding, honoring, and passing along difficult stories.

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References in today’s episode:

Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition

National Indian Boarding School Digital Archive

PBS Legacy of Trauma: The Impact of American Indian Boarding Schools Across Generations (Scroll to the bottom for several more resources)

Healing the Past to Guide the Future w/ Ernie and Charlotte Kwandibens

Stolen Season 2: Surviving St. Michael’s

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This podcast is written, produced, and edited by Red Cedar Way.

Cover Artwork and Music Credits:

Music in this podcast is the track Glacier by the artist SalmonLikeTheFish on the album Music for the Sleepy Traveler. It is used under creative commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

Cover art by Lisa Berry via Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/@lnberry_

Support Red Cedar Way by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/red-cedar-way